While everyone in the accounts receivable management industry waits with bated breath for the Eleventh Circuit to announce whether it will grant the petition for an en banc rehearing in the Hunstein case, behind the scenes the Court is moving forward procedurally with the steps it needs to take.
Yesterday, the Court announced it was withholding the issuance of the mandate in the appeal. This ensures that the opinion issued by the Eleventh Circuit back in April does not become final and the case remains open pending the result of the en banc petition. It is not, however, a step that can be viewed as being either positive or negative for the chances of the rehearing petition being granted; it is merely a procedural act undertaken by the Court.
The Court last week also granted all of the motions that were made seeking to file amicus briefs in support of the petition for rehearing. Sixteen different amicus briefs were submitted, and the Appeals Court allowed each one of them to be included in support of the petition for rehearing. There were even some briefs that were filed after the deadline to submit had passed and they were accepted as well.
EDITOR’S NOTE: For more information about the case, including access to webinars that have been hosted about the ruling as well as a list of copycat lawsuits that have been filed, please check out the AccountsRecovery.net Hunstein Resource page.
All 12 of the judges sitting on the Eleventh Circuit will be polled at some point in the hopefully not-too-distant future and asked if they think the case should be reheard. As long as one judge says yes to that question, then the entire panel of 12 judges votes on whether the petition for rehearing should be granted. If a majority of the 12 vote for the rehearing, then the April ruling is vacated and a new hearing will be held to determine the Court’s final decision in the case.
